Hundreds mourn murdered party girl

12:30PM GMT 14 Feb 2003

The body of murdered teenager Letisha Shakespeare has been brought to her funeral in a cortege which included seven black limousines.

The Birmingham teenager's coffin, adorned with a large white wreath, was carried into Park Avenue Methodist Church, in Northampton - the town in which she was born - where hundreds had gathered to mourn her death.

Dozens of the art student's relatives then filed silently into the church for the service, led by the Rev David Tomlin.

Letisha, who would have been celebrating her 18th birthday today, was gunned down in a hail of sub machine gun fire with her college friend, Charlene Ellis, 18, during a party to celebrate New Year on January 2 at a hairdressers salon in the Aston area of Birmingham.